This is Part 2 of 3 of A Real Estate Feng Shui Analysis.  Click here to read Part 1.

You and your seller have walked through the first part of their Feng Shui Analysis and you’ve left them with a tough assignment: to emotionally say good-bye to their house.  If they’ve taken this step, however, your job of helping them to de-personalize the house and prepare it for showings will be easier.  Let’s look at this process through feng-shui eyes.

De-personalize: Removing the unwanted personal items to make the house more desirable to someone else. This term sounds so . . . surgical.  So in our Feng Shui consult, let’s forget “de-personalize” – nobody wants to live in a house that’s not personal.  There is nothing so personal as one’s own home.  New owners will want a very personal space. So let’s call this process of preparing a home for sale what it really is: it’s a makeover, not extreme like on TV, but a makeover to present the house in its best light for its new owners.  Your listing needs to be ready for its close up, because every showing will be a close-up viewing. From the moment the potential buyers see your home from the road as they’re parking their car, you want the energy to be inviting, welcoming and beckoning.

How do you help your sellers to start the “makeover?  First, by projecting them into their next home.  Ask them to start thinking about where they’re going and why.  When you recommend removing some of the family photos on the surfaces and walls of their house, it’s not about putting them out of sight, it’s about packing them up for the move and allowing potential buyers the opportunity to see the rooms without scrutinizing the faces in the photos.  Your job is to help your clients identify the personal things that may distract potential buyers; invariably those items are personal sacred objects, so you will need to tread lightly. According to feng shui, objects hold energy and share energy with us.  You’re asking them to pack up those objects that hold their personal energy to allow potential buyers to imagine their objects holding the space.  Make sure and scrutinize the front and back of the home and the garage – there are no hidden places in Feng Shui; all are equally important.  As you’re helping your clients with suggestions about the makeover make sure and tell them that you’ll take pictures afterward for the brochure and marketing materials.  The sellers will understand how important the makeover process is to marketing their (former) home. 

One way to support your sellers in their packing up and clearing away is to bring them a Sold rider to put in their garage during the listing process so they can see it every time they come and go.  Tell them it’s ready to put up when the deal is signed.  Make a copy of their flyer or brochure with a large SOLD banner across it that they can post on their refrigerator.  Seeing leads to believing!

It goes without saying that a clean, de-cluttered house is much more appealing to a potential buyer.  Remind your clients to open their windows, sweep the porch, clap in the corners, spritz the baseboards with water and essential oils (easily purchased at a bath and body store) and clean the furniture with lemon oil before a showing.  A house that smells clean is a house that’s ready to move into.   

What about empty homes for sale? Feng Shui practices that help are discussed next in Part 3.  Click here to go back to Part 1.

Written by Perry & Co. Marketing Director Lorrie Grillo. Lorrie is a certified Practitioner of Essential Feng Shui, a designation of the Western School of Feng Shui in Solano Beach, California.